"Desktop" shortcut for full-screen start menu?

My mom just got a new tablet which came with Windows 10. I'm trying to set it up to be as similar as she was used to with Windows 8.1

I know with the full-screen start menu, you can technically just press the Windows key a second time to return to the desktop view you were just in, but it would be nice if there was something I could click on.

I tried copying the .lnk from Windows 8 and the early 10 betas with the "start screen" option, but alas they don't work in the final versions of Windows 10 at all - they don't even show up in the start menu!

I know you can make a "Show Desktop" shortcut, that does the equivalent of Win+D... but that's not really what I'm after. Mainly just need a simple way to return to the desktop after pressing the Windows key.

Is such a thing possible? Worst case scenario I could do something like AutoHotKey the Windows key, but that's kinda stupid, there's surely something built in. Some Explorer: shell command maybe?

drfsupercenter said:

Mainly just need a simple way to return to the desktop after pressing the Windows key.

The simplest way I can think of to switch in/out of tablet mode (and the one I use) is WinKey + A to open the Action Centre, where a click on the 'Tablet Mode' tile switches the mode on/off. Though I don't think that's quite what your asking for.

Right, no, that's not it. I'm intentionally not using "tablet mode", because that disables the desktop entirely (which is super annoying, IMO)

The full-screen start, while keeping it in desktop mode, is a much closer match to what 8 and 8.1 had, though it's not perfect. No "desktop" shortcut for one.

Brink said:

Hello drfsupercenter, :)

You should be able to click/tap on the Start button on the taskbar to close the full screen Start menu and return to the desktop.

Right, I know that, but old habits die hard and I was just curious if there's a way to make an actual shortcut that does the same thing.

@drfsupercenter
Check the swipe actions, swipe from the left, on my Windows tablet, gives me 'Tab Switcher'. Fairly handy!

The start menu will stow upon clicking any pinned item. So, taking advantage of this, we can stimulate the press of a Windows key from a click by clicking on a pinned shortcut that does nothing. Is there an executable will enable us to do nothing? Sure is.

Code:

C:\Windows\System32\rundll32.exe

Pyprohly said:

The start menu will stow upon clicking any pinned item. So, taking advantage of this, we can stimulate the press of a Windows key from a click by clicking on a pinned shortcut that does nothing. Is there an executable will enable us to do nothing? Sure is.

Code:

C:\Windows\System32\rundll32.exe

Awesome, that's exactly what I was looking for

One more question though, is there a way to customize the Start icon that shows up? Most non-modern apps only let you do "small" or "medium" size, not "wide" or "large"

drfsupercenter said:

Awesome, that's exactly what I was looking for

One more question though, is there a way to customize the Start icon that shows up? Most non-modern apps only let you do "small" or "medium" size, not "wide" or "large"

WinTileR - it's available in the Store.

Looks like "EdgeTile" can do the same thing, but it's free.

Shame these have to be installed from the Store though, as now I have an extra entry in the start menu I don't particularly need.

I'll look around to see if I can find any non-UWP programs that do similar (as you can just delete the start menu shortcut for those)